You lose
by Jenn11
Summary: Post RAW 6/2/14. Hunter threatened to fire Dean and Roman if Seth didn't join Evolution. With a little help from their friends (Renee and Paige), the truth comes out, and The Shield gets justice. And, Hunter, you lose...


A/N: Yes, another fic about the Seth betraying Dean and Roman story line…

For this story I'm saying that Roman and Renee have been dating a few weeks. Paige and Dean are both interested in the other, but neither has admitted it yet. Renee and Paige are both friends with all three guys.

FRIDAY MORNING

"Hey, Beautiful," Roman said as he stood aside for Renee to enter the room.

"Hi," Dean greeted.

Mindful of Dean's presence Roman and Renee shared a quick kiss, then stepped back. Roman noticed how tense she was. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Okay… You guys aren't going to like this, but Paige and I noticed something, and we think you guys need to see it."

Dean's eyes narrowed. "It's about Seth."

"Just… Please come to our room and see it. If you think we're wrong, we'll let it go and never mention it again. Promise. Just… look at it," she requested.

Dean and Roman shared a look. Renee and Paige would give them no peace until they did as asked. Might as well get it over with. And Dean hoped playing along might win him some points with Paige, who he was planning to ask on a date. He'd planned to ask Monday after RAW, until his world fell apart.

Moments later they were in the hotel room Paige and Renee were sharing. Paige had her lap top on, with several windows open.

"I'm going to show you some video clips. Watch Seth's face and how he acts," requested the British beauty. She showed three clips of The Shield after they'd won a match, one being an interview.

"Seth is smiling, talking, looking at the camera, plenty of casual physical contact with you both guys. There's life and emotion in his eyes and face. Body language is controlled, but not restricted except by injury," Renee noted.

"Okay. Now, these…" Paige said, and played three more clips of The Shield after they'd lost a Match, one being them in the ring at the start of the next show.

"Seth is quieter. More restricted body language. No smiles. Cold, dead eyes. Less emotion. No truly casual physical contact," Renee pointed out.

Paige spoke again. "This one is going to be hard to watch, and harder to focus on Seth, but watch his face. His expression. His eyes. His body language." She played his betrayal of them. "Last clip," she told them, and played the interview after the match.

Renee spoke next. "After that interview I felt something was wrong, and figured it was just how upset I was that he'd betrayed you. Then I realized it was how Seth was acting. He didn't say anything. Hunter did all the talking. That isn't normal. That isn't Seth. And I re-watched the betrayal. Again, Seth didn't say anything, just Hunter. That isn't normal – not for Seth. I wanted to see if it was just me, so I asked Paige to look at it and give me her opinion. After all, she's known you from NXT, and you're friends. She agreed with me, and we got looking at some of the other footage…"

When Renee trailed off, Paige continued. "You just saw Seth after a win, and Seth after a loss. That night, the betrayal, which one was he acting like? Like he should have after a big win, or like he'd just lost? He didn't look at the camera. He didn't smile. He didn't say a word. Not one word. He didn't show any emotion. Hunter wrapped an arm around him, but Seth didn't initiate any physical contact with Hunter or Randy."

Dean and Roman locked eyes. They'd been caught so caught up in their own anger and hurt they hadn't noticed what Renee and Paige had. Because the girls were right. Seth was acting like he did after a loss, not after a win. He wasn't acting like himself at all.

"You guys know him better than anyone."

"Thought we did…. Until Monday…" Dean cut in.

Renee continued, "You do. Just ask him why he did it, and what's going on. If he's lying, you'll know it."

It was true. None of them were any good at lying to each other.

Paige added her thoughts, "Daniel didn't do what they wanted, and they were going to fire his wife. That isn't the first time they've used threats and blackmail to get what they want. Big Show… The Rhodes brothers… We all know the Authority plays dirty. Maybe…"

Roman and Dean both nodded. They'd gotten the point.

Moments later Seth opened his door to see the last people he'd expected. Roman pushed Seth back into the room. Dean followed, closing the door behind him.

"Relax. We're just here to talk. No one's getting hurt," Roman began.

"Answer a couple questions, and we leave," Dean said, still leaning against the door.

Seth turned away, and walked to the widow, looking out. "I have nothing to say."

Dean responded first. "We noticed. Not in the ring, not in the interview, not on social media… Hunter's the only one with anything to say. After everything we've been through together, you at least owe us an explanation."

"There's a theory that The Authority may have threatened you," Roman added.

"Not me, you," Seth said softly. So softly the others almost didn't hear it.

"What?" Roman said.

Dean moved forward, away from the door. "What do you mean?"

Seth finally turned to face them. "Hunter didn't threaten to fire me. He said if I didn't betray you and join Evolution, he'd fire both of you. But if I did… you'd both eventually get title shots. Not for a while, but in a couple years. I was trying to save you, but I had to hurt you."

Dean and Roman were in shock, but it made sense. To get to Daniel, they hadn't threatened him, they'd threatened his wife. They hadn't threatened Seth, they'd threatened his brothers. And after what had happened with Brie, they hadn't risked doing it in the ring, but done it behind closed doors.

"It's… It's why I got out of the ring and gave the chair to Randy. I just… I couldn't hurt you anymore. Luckily it played well for the camera…"

"Luckily?" Dean asked.

"Hunter wasn't real happy. I was supposed to finish you both off myself." He looked to Roman. "But knowing how bad your back already was… I couldn't do any more damage."

Roman put a hand on Seth's shoulder. "My back is fine." Seeing the looks the others gave him, he corrected, "My back will be fine. Still hurts, but it's better. Losing my brother hurt a lot worse than my back."

"How did you guys know?" Seth asked. The looks on his friend's faces gave Seth his first real smile since Hunter had called him in during RAW.

"It wasn't us. Renee and Paige figured it out," Dean admitted.

"Renee realized something was off with that interview after RAW. She and Paige looked at some footage, and realized you were acting like you do after a loss, not a win," Roman explained.

Seth nodded. "We have to keep their names out of this, no matter what we do ourselves."

Dean and Roman quickly agreed to that. They didn't want to drag Renee and Paige into their war.

"So, what are we going to do now? Hunter, and Randy, need to pay for this," Dean said.

"On SmackDown tonight Hunter's going to make a tag team match for RAW. Randy and I against you two," Seth told them.

Roman gave a dangerous smile. "Perfect."

"They thought last RAW was insane, wait 'til they see this one…" Dean said, smirking.

MONDAY NIGHT

Walking out to the ring with Randy, Evolution's music blaring, Seth tried to ignore the yells of "YOU SOLD OUT!" They'd all know the truth soon enough.

Roman and Dean where in their corner having a – mostly staged – argument. Randy smiled at the sight. Seth fought the urge to roll his eyes. Dean was arguing that Roman's back was worse than his own injuries, so he should start. Roman argued that he was fine and should start. Roman really did want to start the fight; but they'd already agreed that, due to his injured back, Dean would.

Taking the opening, and wanting to lull Randy into even more confidence, Seth picked up the mic as he entered the ring.

"And people wonder why I left The Shield! You two constantly fighting! I got so damn tired of being the glue – the peace maker. For once, why don't you stop arguing and fight," he taunted. He heard Randy's laugh beside him, and Roman reluctantly climbed out of the ring.

Seth and Dean started the match. As expected, the crowd was all cheering for Dean. After a couple minutes Seth tagged in Randy. It was almost time.

Seth tried hard to ignore the commentary. His betrayal, unsurprisingly, being the main topic of discussion.

Dean hit Dirty Deeds, and the crowd cheered. At that signal, Seth started trash talking, and moved closer, to distract the referee. Dean used that distraction to position Randy with his head on the apron. Roman ran along the edge of the ring, then nailed his signature kick to the head. Seth backed off, and the referee went to check on Randy, motioning Dean away; but acknowledged Dean tagging Roman.

"YOU SOLD OUT!" echoed loudly in the arena.

Randy got to his feet and stumbled to towards Seth, whose arm was extended. But instead of taking the tag, Seth grabbed Randy's arm and pulled him face first into the ring post as hard as he could. Then Seth spun Randy around, and pushed him towards Roman. A spear, and the match was over.

"Was Seth's betrayal last week an act?" asked Michael Cole.

"Was The Shield planning this all along?" asked Jerry Lawler.

Just as they'd expected, Triple H came storming out. Roman and Dean moved to stand on either side of Seth.

"You know what this means, Rollins," Hunter growled into the mic.

Before Seth could respond Dean stepped forward and spoke. The crowd fell quiet to listen. "Last night you talked about Plan B. We figured out that your Plan B isn't betrayal…. It's blackmail. You make Seth turn on us us by threatening to fire us if he doesn't… Just like Stephanie threatened Daniel with firing Brie. Maybe you should have learned from how that turned out that it isn't a good idea. But, hey… Go ahead. Fire me. I'd rather be fired than watch you force Seth to be your puppet in Evolution. I'd rather be fired than have to fight and hurt him week after week."

Dean tossed the mic to Roman. "I'm with Dean on this one."

Seth took the mic. "I'm gonna do what I should have done when you first threatened them. I'm calling your bluff."

"You think I was bluffing?"

"At the time, I was too worried about watching my brothers lose the jobs, the lives, they love. Worried they might blame me. But now I've thought about it, and we've talked about it. You always talk about what's 'best for business'. I don't think firing them, and me quitting, is what's best for business. Let's see what the WWE Universe thinks…"

The area exploded with sound. After a moment Dean took the mic back. "You sure you want to fire us, Hunter? You sure that's 'best for business'?"

Triple H threw down the mic and left the ring. Roman took the mic. "Hunter… You lose."

"YOU! LOSE! YOU! LOSE! YOU! LOSE! YOU! LOSE!" The crowd chanted as Hunter walked up the ramp.

Seth held out his fist. Roman's immediately joined it. They watched as Dean started to reach out his, then turned away. "Dean?!"

Roman, having just seen the video a few days before, flashed back to the SmackDown after The Shield Summit when Dean had done the same thing… and pulled Sandow into the ring for a beating and Triple Power Bomb… He smiled.

"Getting a present for Roman," Dean called back, jumping out of the ring just as Randy was struggling to his feet. Now also realizing what Dean was doing, Seth smiled and grabbed Randy as Dean pushed him into the ring. Dean pulled a kendo stick from under the ring, and climbed back in. Roman smirked and gave the up then down sign. Within seconds Randy fell to The Shield's trademark Triple Power Bomb. Seth rolled Randy onto his stomach as Roman caught the kendo stick Dean tossed him.

"All yours, Big Man," Seth said, stepping back to stand beside Dean.

The crowd cheered wildly while Roman landed hit after hit on Randy's back.

Once Roman was done, he gave Dean a look. Dean took Seth down with Dirty Deeds, but didn't hit it fully. Seth was stunned, but not out. Roman landed a couple hits to Seth's back with the kendo stick, then threw it away.

Dean took the mic again. "That was so we're even for Monday… Also for not telling us about Hunter's threat on Monday so we could deal with it together. As a team. As brothers." Dean and Roman each extended a hand. Seth took them, and was helped to his feet.

Seth took the mic from Dean's free hand. "It won't happen again. Believe that."

"Believe in The Shield," Roman said as the camera showed their usual joined fists.


End file.
